Troy-born Bruegger's Bagel bakery to open location in France

Ken Greene, right, Bruegger's Bagel bakery's largest franchisee and current owner of the chain's flagship location at 55 Congress St. in downtown Troy, was recently honored by the Rensselaer County Legislature. Shown are Legislators Gary Pavlic, Peter Grimm, and Mark Fleming. (Ian Benjamin / The Record)

Philip Smith, corporate executive chef of Bruegger's Bagel bakery, explains what differentiate Bruegger's bagels from its competitors during a recent visit to the chain's flagship store located at 55 Congress Street in downtown Troy. (Ian Benjamin / The Record)

TROY -- As the very first Bruegger's Bagel bakery celebrates 30 years at 55 Congress St. this month, the Bruegger's brand is headed to France.

When Bruegger's Bagels opened across from the county courthouse in 1983, most of the country had never tried a bagel, but Troy residents soon found they liked it. That success led founders Nord Brue and Mike Dressell to then open locations in Saratoga Springs and Stuyvesant Plaza, the beginning of a bagel empire.

Thirty years later, a baker still wakes up at the crack of dawn to boil Bruegger's signature bagels at the Troy store, but that location has now been joined by 301 others throughout the United States and Canada, with plans for a forthcoming Bruegger's in Rennes, France.

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In Troy, the original Bruegger's is now in the hands of Ken Greene, the chain's largest franchisee. He owns 14 stores in the Capital District, part of a string of 33 stores stretching through Rochester and Syracuse. If you step through the door at a Bruegger's in New York, it's likely you're walking into a franchise owned by Greene.

If you stepped through the door at the Troy store last Tuesday, you would not only be in a Greene store, you might have seen Greene as well. The franchisee was present to accept an honorary resolution from the Rensselaer County Legislature on the store's anniversary.

Bagel consumption is at one of the highest points it has ever been, with bagels being sold at McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, and throughout supermarket chains, said Greene. However, a "significant" number of those businesses are selling "things that are shaped like, but do not taste like, a bagel," he added.

Executive Chef Philip Smith calls such a knock off "a roll with a hole." In contrast, said the chef, Bruegger's makes "authentic bagels," those that have been kettle-boiled, baked in a stone hearth and are made from only flour, water, malt, yeast, and salt.

Using those five ingredients and the same recipe they have used since 1983, Bruegger's has stayed afloat, even during the bagel wars of the 90s. Unlike then, its competition is no longer primarily competing bakeries; instead, it is anywhere a person can acquire a bagel, as well as similar fast-casual restaurants like Panera Bread bakery-cafes. Despite that competition, Greene intends to grow his chain with new stores in the Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany areas. It is in France, however, that the Bruegger's brand is poised for its greatest growth.

In the Bruegger's system, Greene owns roughly a third of the hundred or so Bruegger's franchises, but most Bruegger's bakeries are owned and operated by Bruegger's Enterprises, Inc., which was purchased by Le Duff America -- the North American subsidiary of French restaurant conglomerate Groupe Le Duffe -- about 18 months ago.

That acquisition was completed "with the anticipation and expectation of growth," said Greene. The Rennes bakery is expected to open in October or November, with the possibility of a Paris store sometime thereafter.

Europe is in the midst of a trend toward American foods, said Smith, and interest in bagels has recently boiled to the top. Groupe Le Duff is hoping to capitalize on that interest, and find the same success in Rennes that Brue and Dressell found after opening their first bakery along Congress Street.

"Thirty years ago, bagels were transitioning from ethnic food into the American mainstream," said Smith. "We're just on the cusp of that in Europe."